Reviews for The Banner of the Bull
Review - Banner of the Bull, The
A quick read that was clever and entertaining enough. Typical Sabatini.
Reviewed by Roger on 2026-01-05 19:17:54
The Banner of the Bullby Rafael Sabatini | |
| Category: |
"Fiction - Short Story Collection" |
|---|---|
| Pages: | 208 |
| Year of Publication: | 1915 |
| Date Added: | 09/30/2022 |
| Date Read: | 01/05/2026 |
| Notes: | Three short stories set in Italy during the time of Cesare Borgia. In The Urbinian, Borgia sends one of his men to sneak into a besieged fortress to open the gate to Borgia's forces. Instead, the man falls in love with the woman who lives there and marries her — thereby procuring the fortress for Borgia without a battle. In The Peruguian Borgia sends a man to find an enemy hidden in his lover's house. The man thinks the enemy is hiding in an outbuilding, which actually contains a man dying of smallpox. To protect her lover, the woman pretends to agree to marry Borgia's man, but actually infects him with smallpox. When Borgia demands that the woman go ahead with the marriage unless she gives up his enemy, she presents a coffin which she says contains her lover dead of small pox (but really containing the man from the outbuilding). Borgia believes her, which puts the woman's lover out of harms way. In The Venecian Borgia uncovers a plot by an envoy from Venice to have him assassinated. He forces the man to ride through the city disguised as Borgia himself, and when the envoy is murdered, Borgia exposes the envoy's own men as the assassins and has them killed. |
| My Rating: | 6 |